My thoughts on politics, technology, running and... come to think of it, those are the only thoughts I've got!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

How I roll Linux

I was going to write a note-to-self post, something to keep track of system changes on this laptop I'm setting up with Ubuntu (and Windows, which is a long story)...

So if you want to know what I'm doing to my system, here it is, here's how I roll...

0. I had the hardest time with this system for some reason, ended up using NTLDR and a Windows installation alongside Ubuntu. I found some instructions on Linux.com for copying from /boot to a file on the Windows partition, and to make sure I never lose it, here's the how-to... first mount the Windows partition so you've got a place to put it: `$ sudo umount /dev/sda1 /mnt` and then move the first 512 bytes of /boot to a Windows file: `$ dd if=/dev/sda5 of=/mnt/bootsect.lnx count=1` -- oh, and you'll need to edit boot.ini to add your boot info for Linux, and be very careful when you edit that file that you don't mess up the carriage control... anyway, here's what mine looks like:

1. If you want your X to listen for connections, there used to be a different way to edit your gdm config, but now it's an XML file. So edit /etc/gdm/gdm.schemas and look for DisallowTCP, which seems to default to "true" and change it to false. Then log out and log back in and you'll be able to `$ xhost +` or whatever other unsecure thing you dare on your own LAN, and then xclock to your heart's content.

That's all I have time for now, but I'll be rolling more later.

2. Packages to install... I'll keep adding to this list as I go, because I think it's a good idea to keep track of what's on the system so the next time you set one up ::cough:: it'll be easier.